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Racing Victoria is satisfied with wagering figures on Victorian thoroughbred racing despite the continued vision blackout by Sky Racing and Tabcorp.

For the period between June 16 and 25, when vision of Victorian thoroughbred racing was only available via Racing.com, Sportsbet or Crownbet digital, there was 2 per cent growth year on year.

Since the launch of Channel 78 on June 26 through June 30, there has been 4 per cent growth year on year.

These figures outperformed Racing Victoria’s forecast. While there has been an impact, this has decreased since the launch of Channel 78, highlighting the importance of television coverage to wagering.

Further analysis continues as figures from the wagering service providers come to hand, including Caulfield’s meeting on July 4.

In a further show of support for Racing Victoria, Betfair has announced that it will lower commission rates on Victorian thoroughbred racing.

It will now be cheaper for customers to bet on Victorian racing than in New South Wales or Queensland, which is expected to increase the level of activity on the Victorian product.

Racing Victoria recently amended the race fields’ fees that it charges betting exchange operators. On a standard meeting, Betfair will now be charged 1.0 per cent of net customer winnings. This increases to 1.5 per cent for Group and Listed meetings, and 2.0 per cent for Premier meetings such as Melbourne Cup Day.

Betfair had been charging its customers a blanket rate of 6.5 per cent commission across the three Australian racing codes. This will now change reflecting on the fees that each racing body charges Betfair, with a variable market base rate ranging from 6 per cent to 8 per cent.

A market base rate of 6 per cent will now apply on every thoroughbred race in Victoria and South Australia, as well as harness racing in Victoria and greyhound racing in New South Wales.

Customers of thoroughbred racing in NSW and Queensland will be charged a commission fee of 8 per cent.

Industry sources believe that this is a significant result for Victorian thoroughbred racing, leading to more Betfair customers that are price sensitive to bet solely on the Victorian product.

Tim Moore-Barton, CEO of Betfair Australia, believes that more racing administrators are becoming aware of the importance of having a viable onshore betting exchange.

“The technology outage that we had during the Warrnambool Carnival in May is a pretty interesting case study,” said Moore-Barton on Racing.com’s Racing Aheadon RSN.

“I think that led to Racing Victoria understanding the importance of the product.

“The first two days of Warrnambool had industry turnover across all operators being up 17 per cent (Tuesday) and 15 per cent (Wednesday).

“Unfortunately on the third day (Thursday), we had a full day outage and that actually led to industry turnover being down 6 per cent.

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IN selecting Seven over Sky the Victorian racing industry has taken a gamble upon a gamble.

The first is that the industry will earn enough through Seven, via advertising and other streams, to make up for the vast millions that would have been assured with Sky/TAB — then grow and earn more.

But the projections are just that, a gamble, and reliant greatly on a catchphrase of the migration from cottage industry coverage to free-to-air — “new eyeballs.’’

There is both risk and allure in the notion of once-mighty horse racing finding itself on a mainstream stage.

To some, the uncompromising Sky option meant stagnation; any longer hidden on pay TV preaching to desperates and it would have become as detached as poor old harness racing. Take a punt or whither.

Melbourne Racing Club chairman Mike Symons is keen for the switch to Seven.Source: News Limited

Melbourne Racing Club chairman Mike Symons summed up the ambition of signing with Seven, saying without mainstream connection and other exposure opportunities racing “was just talking to itself.’’

But the punt of exposing Victorian racing to a non-racing audience, via Seven’s huge cross promotional opportunities, is that it will not just fail to impress but offend; expose fundamental flaws that had previously been mostly hidden.

In some ways this transition couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Three renowned trainers are charged with using cobalt, a drug that is said to harm horses and make them run faster. A notorious ex-jockey has been linked to a current one in a betting scandal. A Hall of Fame jockey was done a year or so for punting and the favourite for last year’s Melbourne Cup dropped dead in front of weeping racegoers. Horses are whipped in every race and the next wave of scandals is always around the next corner.

This is the backdrop to racing’s reintroduction to the mainstream.

In an ideal world Seven would have showcased only prime time Saturdays but the task set its production and on air staff is to turn the pig’s ear of seven day/week racing at dusty, empty joints like Mildura into something resembling a silk purse.

A long-retired former industry chief said a 24/7 racing channel starting with just one meet per day (it will eventually increase) was “unwatchable coz it’s deadset boring.’’

“And you’ll never get the supporting content. Footy can do it coz it’s got 18 teams and endless stories. TVN tried it and it had no audience. Too boring,’’ he said.

The mission is that visual “narrative’’ will entice betting yet an odd thing happened when TVN shut down and the TAB blacked out Tuesday’s Geelong meet; betting pools didn’t drop.

Corporate bookies will be branded all over Seven’s FTA channel. Tom Waterhouse staged an advertising blitz on FTA sport a few years back and became an instant pariah. Bookmakers are a hard sell to the non-gambling world.

This is the landscape, these are the challenges. But racing found itself cornered, has been true to its DNA and taken a punt.

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PUBTAB punters kept their wallets in their pockets while the horses were racing at Geelong on Tuesday, shying away from having a bet because of the media rights vision blackout.

The overwhelming consensus was if you can’t see them, don’t back them.

The publicans, too, were cautious. They said it was too early to tell if turnover was down on day one of Tabcorp’s decision to pull the plug on the Victorian racing feed, but they expected a noticeable impact during Wednesday’s higher-rating program at Ballarat.

Punters in the pubs felt they had been left in the dark.

They did not want to be reading an apology on Sky Channel screens where the Victorian racing would normally be shown — they wanted a deal to be done, differences to be resolved.

Show the horses on the Seven Network and Sky Channel, they said, and everyone’s a winner.

Jim Bowden lives in Myrtleford but had stopped in at the Mail Exchange Hotel in Melbourne’s Bourke St to catch a race or two.

He called the blackout a disgrace.

“This really should have been sorted out a long time ago,” the 57-year-old said. “I know for a fact people won’t bet if they can’t see them. I know I prefer to look at them.”

He put his money where his mouth was on Tuesday, saying he was punting at Kembla and Cessnock on footage he could see.

Bowden is also an owner. He said he had a horse with Darren Weir that was trialling at Burrumbeet on Tuesday and would have been annoyed had it been entered in a race and he was unable to see it run.

Tony Whitty, of Thomastown, is 69 and doesn’t have the internet. He can’t stream a racing feed.

He said he watched races at home on pay-TV or wandered down the pub each day with his “lady friend” to have a bet. “When I was younger, I listened to the racing on the wireless and I didn’t like it then. So I don’t want to bet on them now if I can’t see them,” he said.

At the Oxford Scholar Hotel on Swanston St, owner Malcolm Wulf was showing a racing feed on his iPad for patrons with an interest in racing at Geelong.

But he said the possibility of free-to-air racing on Seven was not a good result for his business. He did not want people staying at home watching horses, he wanted them in his pub.

There were options on Tuesday, of course, but it meant going for a walk.

Tabcorp had agreed to keep showing Victorian meetings at its 92 TAB agencies spread throughout the state. Punters could also stream Racing.com vision on their phones.

For Scott Palmer, 39, neither option was convenient.

The rugby league fan had flown in from Newcastle for Wednesday night’s Origin clash at the MCG and was killing time with friends in Clocks at Flinders Street Station.

He had been filling out TAB tickets during the afternoon, but none of them where for Victorian racing. “If I can’t see them, and I even hate listening to races on the radio, I won’t be having a bet,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Sky Racing blackout is set to continue in homes and in pubs.

Tabcorp is in no mind to start showing vision of Victorian racing while the Victoria Racing Club is still negotiating to sign off on a deal to hand vision rights to the Seven Network.

Until then, for pub-TAB punters, all bets on Victorian racing are off and the costs are still to be counted.

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Wagering figures on Victorian thoroughbred racing were down on Tuesday after the blackout of vision of the meeting at Geelong by Tabcorp and Sky Racing.

The average win pool on the Geelong Synthetic meeting on the Victorian tote was $47,451 per race for the nine-race program, down 10.35% from last Tuesday’s average win pool at Racing.com Park of $52,929.

The average win pool was down 17.74% when compared to the previous Tuesday Geelong synthetic track meeting held on June 2 that averaged $57,678 for an eight-race program.

These figures fall within Racing Victoria’s forecast range for win pools on the Victorian tote with the loss of vision. However, industry sources believe that the loss will be felt less through results with the corporate bookmakers and betting exchange.

Racing Victoria will analyse the daily submissions from all wagering service providers and expect to have a complete position on the impact of the loss of vision on Tuesday’s meeting by Friday.

Forecast wagering impacts for the blackout have been calculated by Racing Victoria and have recent data from the blackout of Sky Racing coverage over the Christmas period to use as guides for baseline impacts.

Victorian thoroughbred racing will continue to be broadcast via Racing Live on racing.com, along with corporate bookmakers Sportsbet and Crownbet offering the service to their customers on digital platforms.

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TABCORP has given Victorian racing officials until Monday to sign a new, long-term deal or all vision of Victorian racing will be blacked out on Sky Channel.

The threat comes only days after Racing Victoria told its clubs that the preferred option for future vision was on free-to-air television with the Seven Network.
The clubs — the Victoria Racing Club, Melbourne Racing Club, Moonee Valley Racing Club and Country Racing Victoria — currently are considering their stance.
However TabCorp’s ultimatum adds urgency to looming board meetings, especially with TabCorp rejecting any more short-term arrangements to continue to show Victorian racing (and paying $2 million a month for it).
TabCorp, stunned that a new television outlet is seriously challenging its hold on the Victorian racing scene, has drawn a line in the sand on the issue.

It will not, according to inside sources, be party to any more short-term deals and will not show Victorian racing again on Sky unless Victorian officials sign a long-term deal at the expense of the Seven Network proposal.
TabCorp reportedly has offered Victoria $300 million over 10 years for its rights.
Racing Victoria has told clubs that its preferred option is to start a new deal for free-to-air vision with the Seven Network. The clubs own the commercial rights and now will decide.
The clubs now must decide if they renew a 10-year deal with the TAB-owned SkyChannel or move to the Seven Network.
The TAB issued a statement this morning saying that it had made a formal offer.
However it added: “TabCorp gave notice that the current interim broadcasting arrangements with Victorian thoroughbred racing will cease on (Monday) June 15, 2015.”

Saundry told Melbourne radio RSN it was important that other wagering operators with large customer bases had access to the Victorian product.

“We need to do whatever we can, whether that’s vision, data or news, to grow the interest in racing and Tabcorp will benefit from that as will other racing operators, he said.

“I can’t influence what New South Wales are doing. I have to focus on what we can do in Victoria as chief executive of Racing Victoria and that is what we’ll do with our clubs and our board and get the right outcomes for the future.”

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TVN Shareholders have announced their decision to part ways in a press release.

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TVN today announced that its NSW and Victoria shareholders have agreed on an amicable split, leaving each state responsible for the distribution of its broadcast and digital media rights.

TVN’s business will continue to operate and serve the racing community while the TVN shareholders determine the future of the operation.

The Australian Turf Club (ATC), Victoria Racing Club (VRC), Melbourne Racing Club (MRC), Moonee Valley Racing Club (MVRC) and Country Racing Victoria (CRV) jointly own TVN.

TVN holds the broadcast and digital rights to all Victorian and New South Wales thoroughbred racing. Its rights are broadcast via TVN (Foxtel channel 522) and its vision is distributed via the the Seven Network and previously Sky Racing. TVN’s digital rights are distributed through Racing Network, a 50:50 joint venture with Telstra. TVN also owns two print assets Winning Post and Best Bets.

“Partnerships are complex and a certain degree of alignment is required for them to succeed. Rightly or wrongly views differ greatly by State in relation to objectives, strategies and priorities. In the case of TVN, even scale and aggregation were insufficient motivators to hold a partnership together, in the absence of strategic and philosophical alignment,” said Bruce Mann, CEO TVN.

It’s important to note that this is an amicable split and that all commercial obligations will be met and employees looked after,” Mr Mann confirmed.